A lot of quintessentially American things are anti-American
“Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen in general, “Rambo,” Mark Twain, “Monopoly,” MTV, et cetera
The arc goes:
- US system is bullshit
- Someone points it out in an artistic work
- People love it and the thing they made gets popular
- System goes “hey we love that you’re buying this please do it more” and promotes it under a guise of it not being directed squarely at them, with some skillful edits
- Thing gets even more popular with more exposure, in its edited (backwards) form, to the point that the original is often semi-forgotten
Being against the bullshit is an American trait. Unfortunately, the bullshit has become more powerful than the against, hence all these problems we have now.
Rambo: First Blood was a critique of a system that has failed its war veterans. The sequels abandoned all that 70s new-cinema moral ambiguity, making Rambo into a Reagan-era anticommunist superhero, a sort of James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.
The same goes for Karate Kid…
I loved how it portreyed Miyagi as a sad man who lost wife and child to the internment camps, while he was serving the US and his medal is a bitter reminder of that fact.
In Cobra Kai is was “War Medal fuck yeah ! Miyagi best veteran, we must protect the patriotic legacy !”
It’s a studies thing. Conservatives are unable to grasp irony or sarcasm. It’s one of the reasons Steven Colbert stopped his show. The people he was mocking were holding his character up as someone to aspire to.
What?! I didn’t know that
Never underestimate the ability of fascist and conservatives to misread media and to try to appropriate shit critiquing them into somehow something that glorifies them.
Mel Brooks got it right when he mocked nazis in ways that made them look so ridicules that they couldn’t appropriate his stuff for their purposes.
That’s probably because he fought in WW2, so he knows a thing or two about them.
Wow I have not given this song a proper listen
You should. It’s potent stuff. About how the military-industrial complex chews up young men and then leaves them damaged and destitute.
Bruce originally recorded a demo for the much more somber-sounding Nebraska album, before changing it up and making it the title track of the next album instead.
